page 22

safe food, safe livelihoods!

new foe campaign for sustainable agriculture

kees kodde, foe netherlands

From promotion of organics to preservation of agricultural biodiversity, European FoE groups already campaign widely on agriculture and food issues. But no policy area is as Europeanized as agricultural policy, so fifteen European FoE groups are cooperating to
demand a radical reform of Europe's food and agricultural policies, especially the CAP, Europe's Common Agricultural Policy.

define apple?!
Brussels has been very busy boosting agricultural production, trade and export at the expense of sustainability and biodiversity. The Brussels bureaucracy even went so far as to decree that an apple smaller than 55 mm can no longer be called an apple!

not moving with the times
The CAP was created in 1957 to increase European agricultural productivity and ensure regional food security. However, Europe now produces far more than it can consume. The CAP system has failed to adapt to the new needs of agriculture and consumers in Europe. Its sole axiom is productivity and export stimulation. Problems including environmental degradation and pollution, social inequalities, rural abandonment and the large supply of unhealthy and over-processed food are not being adequately addressed. Overproduction and subsidies have led to the dumping of EU produce on the world market, practices that push producers in developing countries out of business.

favouring big over small
Half of the EU budget goes to the CAP, about 44 billion Euro per year. About 70 percent of this is spent on direct payments, and approximately 20 percent on market regulations. Only about 10 percent is spent on the so-called second pillar of the CAP, which includes measures for rural and environmental development.

This means that 90 percent of the CAP budget strongly favours large, high-output farms. This subsidy system forces farmers to adopt the intensive agricultural practices that cause huge environmental problems and social inequalities among farmers. Eighty percent of the CAP budget goes to 20 percent of Europe's largest farms in Europe. Small farmers are often unable to make a living, and are squeezed out of business. The European farm labour force has plummeted from 13 million to 7 million over the past 25 years.

environment suffers
The environmental consequences of the CAP have already had a dramatic impact on European biodiversity. In the UK alone, 170 native species have become extinct this century, and populations of nine key species of farmland birds dropped by more than half between 1970 and 1995, extinctions and declines linked directly or indirectly to pest control.

vision for expanded EU
Right now there is huge potential in non-EU countries for sustainable farming. But if the current subsidies system is transferred to the candidate EU countries after their accession, the disastrous outcomes mentioned above will follow: loss of employment and biodiversity, and a massive rise in chemical inputs.

what we want
Friends of the Earth is demanding radical reform of the CAP. Support for agriculture in the EU must be much more closely linked to environmental and rural development benefits. We want to see more regionalized production; we want export subsidies abolished, taxes and levies placed on chemical inputs, and stronger measures adopted to foster sustainable farming.

For more information, contact Kees Kodde (kees.kodde@milieudefensie.nl) or Manfred Mader (mandred.mader@foeeurope.org).